Lonely Planet Puerto Rico [Paperback]

Randall S. Peffer (Author)

Book Description

Series: Lonely Planet Puerto Rico | Publication Date: October 1999

Lonely Planet's latest Caribbean destination covers Puerto Rico from beach resorts to secluded rainforests and unspoiled off-shore islands. It includes the scoop on the hopping bar and club scene along the Paeso de al Princesa, in-depth background on the architecture of Old San Juan, and coverage of the Spanish Virgin Islands.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Times Union, March 12, 2006
'...Lonely Planet's Puerto Rico guide includes detailed trail descriptions and history.'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

Introduction to Puerto Rico

Every Friday and Saturday night, music teases crowds into the streets of Old San Juan. Young people in Polo shirts and sheer dresses parade along the cobblestones. Perfecting their night moves, they sashay up the hill past the centuries-old Casa Blanca, ancestral home of the family of Juan Ponce de Leon - seeker of the legendary Fountain of Youth.

Throngs gather on Calle San Sebastian, the street that rises above the sea and the restorations of the fortified city that has been the commercial hub of the Caribbean for more than 450 years. Here, wandering groups of musicians and dozens of bars, restaurants and clubs pump the sounds of salsa into the tropical night. Everyone moves to the syncopated rhythm of bongos, congas, maracas, cowbells, trumpets and song. And an island celebrates the fusion of elements that gave birth to a place, a culture, a race and a spirit that the world calls 'Puerto Rico', but islanders still know as Borinquen - the name the Taino Indians gave their island home before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1493.

Like the island's famous salsa - a spicy blend of Afro-Caribbean rhythms and big-band jazz - almost everything about Puerto Rico stands out as a dramatic and original yoking of opposites. Here, travelers will find strong and recognizable vestiges of Amerindian ancestors, Spanish conquistadores and West African slaves, as well as the political and economic influence of the USA - the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico's legal step-parent. The fusion of these strains is so distinctive that neither the place nor the culture can be mistaken for any other, and Puerto Rico claims a vitality and reputation that far exceeds the island's diminutive size.

Just 35 miles wide and 100 miles long, Puerto Rico is the smallest of the Greater Antilles and stands as the keystone between the larger islands to the west and the long arch of the Lesser Antilles to the east. In many ways this location makes Puerto Rico the 'gatekeeper' of the Caribbean Sea, and the island's strategic position as a crossroads has fired her character. Not only can you see the fusion of native America, Africa and Europe in the faces of her people, but you can also hear the synthesis of Spanish and English (spiced with Taino and African words) in islanders' speech in this officially bilingual commonwealth. Diners taste the merger of the fields of Europe, the spices of Africa and the fish of the Caribbean in traditional cuisine such as asopao, a hearty stew. Drinkers here in the rum capital of the world find magic in the spirits distilled from sugarcane and mixed with pineapple and cream of coconut in the popular pina colada or blended with tart lime juice! in a daiquiri.

In Puerto Rico, poets become politicians and spiritual wayfarers embrace elements of Catholicism and African Santeria. Songs with rhythms to make stones rise up and dance carry lyrics about heartbreak. Slums and mansions stand side by side, and simply guesthouses languish in the shade of resort hotels. Ford Mustangs adorned with blazing paint jobs and tinted glass travel the backroads with herds of wild horses. Street vendors selling tostones (fried plantains) share the block with Burger King, while the warships of the US Navy keep company with local sailboats.

No doubt, travelers will find other dramatic signs of fusion in the Puerto Rican landscape itself. Contemporary Borinquen is a place where the green peaks of the Central Mountains (Cordillera Central) press the high-rises of modern San Juan to the edge of the sea. The ancient fortresses and walled Spanish city of Old San Juan stand nearly adjacent to the casinos, condominiums and resorts of the newer Condado district. Cane fields surround golf courses, soulless housing developments mask the way to pristine ocean coves, and the world's most luminescent phosphorescent bay lies next to a proving ground for military maneuvers. Broad beaches lie almost in the shadow of verdant mountain slopes of El Yunque, the national rain forest.

And in spite of - or perhaps because of - these dramatic contrasts, the music never stops on this island whose anthem, "La Borinquena" praises Puerto Rico as a "flowering garden of exquisite magic...the daughter of the sea and the sun." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 086442552X
• ISBN-13: 978-0864425522
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,364,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #77 in Books > Travel > Caribbean > Puerto Rico

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fun to read before the trip; extremely helpful during it, March 27, 2000

By 

Tina Cohen (Amherst MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet Puerto Rico (Paperback)

Randy Peffer's book inspired our family to tour the entire island, not limiting ourselves to a resort where we would be isolated from life on "la isla." With Peffer's advice, we selected paradores, inns, and small hotels on the coast, deep in the mountains, and in Ponce and Old San Juan. In every case, Peffer described the travel, accomodations, culture, recreation and dining options so well that we felt we had a personal introduction to each locale. With a sense of humor and great respect, Peffer prepared us for everything we encountered. His book encouraged us to appreciate and enjoy the differences of another culture. We would definetely have missed out on some great towns, night spots for music, snorkeling, restaurants, and local color without the guide. I would recommend Peffer's as the one must-have book to read when planning the trip as well as consulting daily when touring. By the end of our vacation we were referring to "Randy sez" as if he were in the car with us helping us get the most out of our trip.

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very UNHAPPY with this book, May 3, 2006

By 

Yume (Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet Puerto Rico (Regional Guide) (Paperback)

We just came back from a 10 day trip to Puerto Rico (04/21 - 05/01, 2006) and we have to COMPLETELY disagree with the previous review. In fact, we were thinking about burning this LP copy. Don't get us wrong, we own several copies of LP for China, Eucador, South America, Guatamala, and etc. But we have serious reservation about recommending this one to anyone else. Here are some of the reasons:

1. Several budget restarurants in Old San Juan no longer exist. They include St. Germain, Brenda's Cafe, and Los Amigos. It became very frustrating after going to several places and finding out 3/4 of them were closed.

2. The same happened in Ponce, but for hotels. Two out of three hotels listed on pg. 166 (center of Ponce, by the Plaza las Delicias) were not there - they simply don't exist.

3. Now, telephone numbers. we can't say that all of them in the guidebook are wrong, but the ones we called are either disconnected or a wrong number. This goes for the UA Cinema 150 in San Juan (pg. 105), which we found out at a Holiday Inn in Isla Verde that it was torn down a year ago. Or the Museo de Art Contemporaneo de Puerto Rico, which doesn't open on Monday, as the guidebook indicated - in fact, no museum in San Juan opens on Monday!

4. We can list more annoyances, like the lack of good maps for most of the cities described, or bad driving directions...

We are not saying that this book has no value, but when you finds enough inconsistencies and errors, you has to wonder what else is wrong, and more importantly, whether or not you can actually trust and rely on the guidebook. And in that respect, our answer is NO.

The take home message: carefully compare this book with another. If you do decide to buy this LP, always call the places ahead to see 1) if it still exist, and 2) if the number is correct.

On a side note, at one point during the trip, we thought that we would probably have had more luck with a coqui as our guide than using this guidebook! =)

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mostly accurate and reliable, with a few oddities, March 16, 2006

By 

V. C. Wald (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet Puerto Rico (Regional Guide) (Paperback)

In general, this Lonely Planet "Puerto Rico" (there are more than one; this one is by Ginger Adams Otis) is overall reasonably accurate and up-to-date as of February 2006. There are a few oddities within, however:

One is the pronounciation of the word for chicken, pollo. As many times as I've been in Puerto Rico, I've never heard it pronounced PO-lyo, as indicated on page 67. It is PO-yo, or sometimes more like PO-djyo. I never heard any Puerto Rican pronounce the "l" sound in this word.

Second, some of the hotel classifications seemed to based on the hotel's self-classifications (or wishful thinking) more than anyone's actual experience. For example, although the author's description is reasonably accurate, on page 95, Otis lumps Hotel El Milano into the same midrange category as El Convento. El Convento is truly upscale, and always has been, both in accommodations and in price. El Milano is very firmly mid-scale in all dimensions.

Of course guides like this are very hard to keep up-to-date, especially in countries like Puerto Rico where businesses are easy-come-easy-go, and change owners constantly. We found big differences in restaurant qualities in several cases, and in others, eateries she recommends were dark and locked the whole time we were there. My advice is to check with your hotel concierge or call ahead rather than depending on any guidebook when making dining choices.

The author also exaggerates the wonders of the Ruta Panoramica and various state parks in the central mountains. Some of the reservas forestales were total junk yards with burned out auto hulks literally every 300 yards for miles on end, and loads of roadside litter (alas, typical of Puerto Rico.) This is not to say that a drive through the mountains of Puerto Rico is not a must-do, because it is, but just be prepared for a big dose of reality that the author choses not to mention. Lift your chin high and enjoy the flora and fauna (mainly roosters wandering all over the road, with the occasional paso fino horse, with a long-leggedy bareback rider on board) and the gorgeous views in the distance.